HERE ARE THE MEN AND FORMULAS THAT LAUNCHED SPUTNIK

• Document Type: FOIA
• Keywords: USSR
• Keywords: PARIS
• Keywords: SPUTNIK
• Keywords: SOVIET UNION
• Collection: Intelligence Warning of the 1957 Launch of Sputnik
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0000124242
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: September 22, 2017
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2017
• Case Number: F-1990-01132
• Publication Date: March 18, 1958

PROCESSING COPY -L"
3-020554
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25N Nevfasbas 1957, 'Paris
Pie. 11-1A
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Where there is smocke there mot be fire... Theer.ti.ally, the problem
of en artioleial sat.ilit? w long L,.ewn to haws been eelTodo It
was also knern that the tr,,ewndew saientirtea progress of the lost ten.
yrsrs had made this d.Telspe.nt tschnieaity possible. WWsteroae articles
ha-r" appeared in the last few menthe in the Soviet pres. annoasaiiIC the
firing of sputnik, the first of its mama. iho magasine I*d1 oven
advised radio home last ernst that the satwlliteds signals would be
bresdeast on 'O and Ao 1b4 In Aurust 195% aead.atelan 1.. Bedew stated
At the Astronalrtie Congress of Oopwnhagrt that the Pue.ian satellite
oould be launched within the next 2 years...'
And them, suddenly, in the night of A Osteb.r, the !owlet radio and
the oraaklint flashes en the t.letyp.o of the new sceneisa and newspapers
atmow.ed the great nears to the world, a world somewhat astonished to
learn that the first artificial ..on wet a Pw.ian r+eenl After the
fret moment of dartbn.es had p.esed, a raeo was an to get inlbraatIon and.
trqublishod material and cue only needs to talrc another look at the world
rreee output of the lawt three weeks to reelix* how many thousands of
11-a.s d copy erro d.vot..i to this subj.et. To bo stun, It was this
a,nlanehw of s.nrationsl infor+sation end r++.lations vhloh led Oror{??s
,mine and myself to undertake this inv.etigetien. As a amtter of fact,
!t was eta eouran interest in Qetiet-{?robl.ms which led us to aloe a very
d-tailed .woh of everything that had been written on this .ubj.et. In
so doinr, we dis.ev.red that even very serious authors had written artielee
that were replete with oentrodietienut and teehnioal 1sp1* tbtlitiss.
rrerybo* was able to natiee that while the Russians remained silent,
all treat physicist, astrenaata, astrotaevar., reeket speeialists, admirals,
and gen.rels of world r.newn .nthwasrtisally b.isn ma.kis all sorts of
c= twatieeal btrt entirely eetttradietory stat.+eents.
At that point we d.eided to start eta investigation !!w eeretsh
and, in order to get it off our offset, to enatine the 'guilty part!?ad been wentlreaed in Soviet literature. Lest us reewll that Sielbovekiy
died In 19" and that thi Vim: t-31.brat.d the centenary of hie birth
(17 September 1857) with waatsal glitter this year.
Oo.mic 9n>teda
Next we consulted the groat Soviet eee$1op.dia under eintarplsnetary
F1 ights.' There, we found a very interesting article by H. Ti!donravev,
w .ciali.t In rocket motors (Vol 77, page }1, if, edition of Jun
19 )? In a section entitled "Teielkovskiy's Formula' Tilchonrafvv writes
(and we quote, leaving him the responsibility for hie statement)#
'The final speed of the rocket (Vic) -- as shown in the accompanying
chart -- is a ftx,ction of both the exhaust speed of the .embustion pro-
ducts (C) and the relation i!t , where Mt Is the mass of the fuel and Nk
kic
the ass of the empty rocket after combustion.
'When the foreo of terrestrial attraction and the e.ntri2ingial fore*
are in equilibriump then the orbit of the interplanetary ship will a.saaw
the form of a perimeter. The speed of this notion is sal 1.4 .ireular
.peed! it is expressed by Tk a {^g , where g represents the aeoe]eration
of gravity at a die#anee r from the center of the planet. If r equals
the radius of the earth and g ? 9*$ a par ...end per seeoad, then Yk ?
7,912 n per second. A body fired into "see at that speed eataast fall
back to earth. As the rocket leaves the earth, Tic diminishes but the
launching into a circular orbit requires the use of more energy than that
required to attain a sped of 7,912 a per second.
'Disregarding air resirteno., the nae.ssary speed to neap* from
terrestrial attraction equal. Tn a . The trajectory of the body
(rocket) will then b* parabolic, and this is the reason why Tn Is called
the parabolic speed. For the earth this speed vn equal. to 11, 200 n
per seeotrd, on the average.
'Tte necessary speed for total liberation of the interplanetary
ship from terrestrial attractions, exerted jointly by earth and sun, can
be obtained by lausnhing the vessel at a ecrtain .rgl.i it is 16,662 a per
...ord. The .aaximam speed of big liquid-fuel rsekere is now more than
4000 a per second, the .xltaust speed being 0 a 2,000 a per sesend and
? 3. Our chart shows that. for an exhaust speed of 4,000 a per second
the circular ep..d is reached when it a 7. For a bel..ity of 11, 200 n:
kac
per second MI must be 15. For a veleeit:7 of 16, 6 o a per seemed .1M ? 50+.
lac WC
 `s iO' a?~ reeheetet.attswerittg
'It is trot very probnbls that
three requireeanuts .an be built. SererQ Boats east be considered to
erereoes+ the difficulties. The relative t entity of fuel necessary to
rttain ee.eaio speed can be diainished by applyistg the prineipl? of a
rocket in stages. All the element.o of such a rocket would serve as
rteoeleretors and deter t th.ar+lvcs after asesaplishing their 24atetien
with the a oeptiott of the last one, thieh attains .carne speed...
is R2.e r.ssible to utilise sertain parts of the reeloet as fuel.
The -az4nvre "peed can be increased by iner.asIM the s36msat speed.
Atow a court can to used to **dew thLis. :tut the creation of an atomic
reel-et required the solution of a ranter of* eca4l ieet.d t?sehnisal pro-
bleua. In the !burrs, the we of etteoie energy will sake it possible to
re&..t.te the relative veitht of the fuel (perhaps without haw re.ettrse
to t:,> stave re.ket). increase the peyl.ad., decrease the tine required
for interplanetary veyeg.s, and evert to consider an incursion of speed
beynid the solar systea. It will also a%ke the rsttei. to our eats planet
wife-. '
T1t?-> fulle+a a paragraph an the works of Tsud r end Aendratitdr,
me well. as a stwwrry of studies undertaken outside the frontiers of
the tY P by such well-itstern sehelars to Oborth, 4asanet, artanit-T.)tsris,
c'.oddard4 to.
:L1i ..h l1A
!iow, we have omkn what the nueesses7 .osdittens are to escape
tore tritl attraction. We have also noted that a multiple-stagw rocket
is rmquirod to achieve this rsrult. This, indeed, is the salient point.
As et-tiller, Eerwn*l, A. Ble irravOY, recently said in New Tack, 'sputnik
its"-'f Ic nathingl we oould just as ell have sent up a chain ' The
iape rtartt element of tht....Bees be irK the rocket it.e l f, we looked
up this word in the Oreet Soviet P1+eyslbpdta. Ind !veer is what we
itsve fbuatd Drat the sity+nturo of H. Tikhotravor (again the some wise?)
e d 0. tjapowrv (enather rocket .xpert) in vol j), past, 6&Y-668, edition
of July ig5gt
,he baetie formula (Tstalln" iy's formula) of resk.t fi3 tt thmory
I* ss fbllewse V Oln where r rapes nts the speed of the rocket
? H
at the flee To 0 the e3dtatrt speed of the sowtsvstis" predusts, ill -~
the rocket sons at the rises T, h4 - the saes of the fuel beret before
the time T, and It - the suss of the rowaitsin6 fuel, When the stater
has finished its werln X a 0 and III . M4 from wh ieh T . T sax ? Q~ ?
CI" ('. ? r ). This formula is vx]id for !1w .pea Jerre- es~is no
f1e1d of fAb.,etiee and ats.spheria resistant..
fur fligbts tatd.r ir~etitieats.
 'Tbr a liquid reshot y a:x .? P7 . gin Mho" r7l reglrseettt the
;dc
relative ttrtwt of the toter, ? 9.131 r: per aeeslai par seeen4e and ve .
is t3ie Saints Meerut (era-) of the reelxrt. In order to inareate ttM
- peed (end the Iwoee)e the prira3pla of a i'oekoet eeesdstisit or
mod
ate '.o to %+red. 'salt e1areet o wive a rsekat end detaehet Itself
.- estt.s>rtim its lbel 0"17.. The last eletseat osettains the ps 1st.
'7kr unit a rseAcot* _
Ytc .? a (lts t in 1 - + n L6-1 Marl ) A.me yk
- nv-I 7"-1 - At
is the filial speed, Xl - 2,y and F1 ? ..d"2 (ti to the reigm of
00 Ott
thy- feel btsrrted b each roekart elc?stt tIeti -- the teal vni&tt of ea4lt
olotunrtt wed go -- the initial %oiglrt of the whole redtet.
'" n 71 w we hnve t
(i- x71) 12 - I and rk ? TCIn T m to uital speed of
t is uieQortioml to the mub-w of its o1e.rmt$0
o -II a Art,t'i+ tfl` cr*th snto1iiitds.'
It viii be taztioed, hov"Yer, that in the lend r tla etbe"# the
r..r'!!wir of this study did mt alrboretw on the tavnnt'tE of the parww tea'
1n rr,d it is r. pity he did mt.
1,4m is how wpvlal2: Mar lnunehed. `-let wt-re the properties of the
let eh1i roekatl Now mrp s4.utrve did it hnvwt The Auesimis ais ettreaell'
r-!ia,nt an this points TI. TeTvmreVr p iderrt of the aetra.amtt ii
sec! ice of the Oerrtral taro Club of the M:i: and L. ?ados, the r wit
eeardttttttcr or the '6nby-r n' have rep1!edt '.sew+ral.' Pab+dost*te"#
troth r soir tiwty es,d rxvat ezl.art an roskwt prepulsienr said a+dr
radio Tioeeo*n '2t is lane u that aRfr tealmoloa poruitep miUout to Itt ever an
etriit1.ai^1 v'tellite with the help of a 3-etii rook*+e
.p,.aifyil; Oat this VMS settiI17 the r nww in whieh sputnik Mss launehmd.
: MV& of ocieber 9 apeoffies (tit) in a lem bulletin that the Meeker!
nd boat ee3 1 petaa'itti and had bear Crd4od with the -eateet pre-
cision sr ss to p os spatrdk into the eileoted orbit., that it-Ind risen
r tie51?.7. Only to le-iate 'a little later' fees flat emawo owing to
an eletetreeiia brain set'lej't the firitss. tbnt at the and of its Bourse
it hid reetahed a height of etv"Ml hundred kilometers tad we troy 11itg
prrrllel to the sroo of the earth at an a, rage speed ff 4000 a per
eoeeetl. It Ideal that sftm t1M last Ant" MA horsed sots the p ateotr'
IM }read Mat e3seted and spec leoi: off.
 A question arises her., the whole se4srtanse of which Will be tutder-
etoodi At what altitude was sputnik rel.as.dt
Altjtuudee o~.lsss.
Free the first day on it was anmmnsed that sputnik reveled at
an altitude of 900 tea and all newspapers lswsdiately eeneluud.d that it
had been lounebed precisely at that altitude. This is utterly illesieal
and her. is the reason VI VI
(1) Lot us first note that the Russians halve later specified that
sputnik reached 900 lea (and, according to gs, even nearly 1,000
km) at its apose. and that its periZea vas oen.iderably saall.r.? It
follows, in offsets an elliptical orbit. lass Iardia Keurne.ssta has
sineo revealed that this perigee wreusted to "00 Ys. Thu., it is quite
unlikely that sputnik was launched at--* polirt con.bttuting its ap.fee.
(2) What do the laws of celestial seehanies say, in effoatl A
body launched near the earth with a rme d of 8,000 a per ..pond will
not return. In Riot, at that speed the eentrif itl for.. and the fare.
of gravity cancel each other out, as we have seen abeve. The body will
thus be transformed into a e tellite nevinr in a circular orbit like
all heavenly bodies. This orbit obviously apprexisates a circle which,
for that r.tter, is nothixip, bt.-t a spool--a tares of ellipse. We sax that
a body launched a a .peE :,aesila.isa radar
the' !le-reno.sia Ceeatoil Otte
of ~stxtblialtesa!t!t Apl1T T9T~)
C}atIrntnt 1,?enld ~.dat-
Geeret.mr A. FT?I
P. ?npit ma t. Aedles- 11. . ?
a a st trrR}tee lap Mole
Vie tftaetlt same mention the M tis r ties nest lion of the CeMrnl Afro
~r.nrr+
Clnb of t}r MV1 twad P? ?. !'c.Nstlev, 1tsoe ehairnee to IT.
with .t. ! ettd%ld as Me .a:i.stort.
 .n rrt f-os tfx+ ce+:i!rrec tr`,, i+.enif, of ~l~e!t possible ua